Memory cards are known in the art and contain intelligence in the form of a memory circuit or other electronic program. Some form of card reader reads the information or memory stored on the card. Such cards are used in many applications in today's electronic society, including video cameras, digital still cameras, smartphones, PDA's, music players, ATMs, cable television decoders, toys, games, PC adapters, multi-media cards and other electronic applications. Typically, a memory card includes a contact or terminal array for connection through a card connector to a card reader system and then to external equipment. The connector readily accommodates insertion and removal of the card to provide quick access to the information and program on the card. The card connector includes terminals for yieldingly engaging the contact array of the memory card.
The memory card, itself, writes or reads via the connector and can transmit between electrical appliances, such as a word processor, personal computer, personal data assistant or the like. The card may be used in applications such as mobile or cellular telephones which are actuated and permit data access after identifying an identification code stored on a SIM (subscriber identification module) card. The SIM card has a conductive face with an array of contacts, and the mobile phone has a SIM card connector with terminals for electrical connection with the contacts of the SIM card to ensure the subscriber identification confirmation.
A typical memory card connector includes some form of dielectric housing which is covered by a metal shell. The metal shell may be stamped and formed of sheet metal material and formed substantially into a box-shape. The metal shell and the housing combine to define a card-receiving cavity. One end of the cavity is open to form a card-insertion opening. The dielectric housing may be generally L-shaped or U-shaped and includes a rear terminal-mounting section at the rear of the cavity, and at least one longitudinal side wall section extends forwardly from one or both ends of the rear section at one or both sides of the cavity. The metal shell has a top plate substantially covering the dielectric housing, with side plates extending downwardly over the side wall sections of the housing. One or both of the side wall sections of the housing define the sides of the card-receiving cavity.
Some card connectors include a card eject mechanism whereby the memory card is simply inserted into the connector, and the ejector mechanism is used to facilitate removal of the card from the connector. Some eject mechanisms include slider members which engage the memory card for movement therewith into and out of the connector. Latches, cams, eject devices and other operative components then are operatively associated with the slider rather than the memory card itself. One type of card eject mechanism includes a heart-shaped cam slot in the slider, with a pin member operatively biased into the heart-shaped cam slot, and with a spring member to normally bias the slider in a direction of withdrawal of the memory card. This type of card eject mechanism is called a “push/push type” ejector in that the memory card first is pushed into the cavity of the connector to a latched operative position, and a second push on the card is effective to release the card and allow the spring to eject the card from its latched position.
Such a push/push type eject mechanism has a number of problems or disadvantages due to the number of parts to be assembled which prevents complete automation of the assembly process, requiring some manual assembly. For instance, the cam pin which is associated with the cam slider is extremely small and difficult if not impossible to assemble by automation much less by hand. The cam pin easily comes out of the cam slot when subjected to even minor vibrations during other assembly operations, such as installing the metal shell. The present invention is directed to solving these problems.